Prohibits hotels and homeless shelters from displacing vulnerable persons in favor of non-United States citizens or non-lawful permanent residents of the United States; establishes fines for violations of such prohibitions.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
7009
2023-2024 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
May 16, 2023
___________
Introduced by Sens. ROLISON, WEBER, ORTT -- read twice and ordered
printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Social
Services
AN ACT to amend the social services law, in relation to prohibiting
hotels and homeless shelters from displacing vulnerable persons in
favor of non-United States citizens or non-lawful permanent residents
of the United States
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. The social services law is amended by adding a new section
2 44-a to read as follows:
3 § 44-a. Displacement of vulnerable persons. 1. Definitions. As used in
4 this section:
5 (a) "Hotel" shall mean a building or portion of a building which is
6 regularly used and kept open as such for the lodging of guests and shall
7 include an apartment hotel, a motel, boarding house or club, whether or
8 not meals are served.
9 (b) "Homeless shelter" shall mean a specific facility operated or
10 funded by a not-for-profit corporation, charitable organization, wholly
11 owned subsidiary of a not-for-profit corporation or of a charitable
12 organization, public corporation or municipality for the availability of
13 housing for homeless persons, which may include other non-housing
14 services including but not limited to dining, recreational, sanitary,
15 social, medical and mental health services.
16 (c) "Vulnerable person" shall mean a United States citizen or a lawful
17 permanent resident of the United States that is one or more of the
18 following:
19 (i) a veteran who served on active duty in the uniformed services of
20 the United States, or in the army national guard, air national guard, or
21 service as a commissioned officer in the public health service, commis-
22 sioned officer of the national oceanic and atmospheric administration or
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11447-01-3
S. 7009 2
1 environmental sciences services administration, cadet at a United States
2 armed forces service academy, and who has been released from such
3 service under other than dishonorable conditions;
4 (ii) a person under the age of eighteen years old or over the age of
5 sixty-five years old;
6 (iii) a person with a physical or mental disability;
7 (iv) a victim of domestic violence;
8 (v) a pregnant woman; or
9 (vi) a parent or guardian with a minor child and whose income of such
10 parent or guardian is below the poverty level.
11 2. No hotel or homeless shelter shall displace a vulnerable person who
12 resides in such hotel or homeless shelter as his or her primary resi-
13 dence, whether such residence is permanent or temporary, for the purpose
14 of housing a non-United States citizen or non-lawful permanent resident
15 of the United States.
16 3. Nothing in this section shall prohibit a hotel from displacing a
17 vulnerable person for failure to pay a rate of charges for lodging or
18 other services provided by the hotel.
19 4. No hotel shall increase the rate of charges for lodging for a
20 vulnerable person due to the potential or promise of a higher rate of
21 charges to lodge a non-United States citizen or non-lawful permanent
22 resident of the United States.
23 5. (a) A hotel or homeless shelter that violates subdivision two of
24 this section may be fined up to one thousand dollars per violation.
25 (b) A hotel that violates subdivision four of this section may be
26 fined up to five hundred dollars per day the hotel is in violation.
27 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
